A new Chicago-area casino is getting ready to open this summer — months ahead of schedule.
Hollywood Casino Joliet, which is leaving its longtime riverboat home, announced Wednesday it is planning to move into its new land-based facility Aug. 11, pending regulatory approval.
“The countdown to the opening of our newest casino begins today,” Jay Snowden, Penn Entertainment’s CEO and president, said in a news release. “The move from our existing riverboat significantly improves our offerings in the highly attractive Chicagoland market, and both our existing customers and new guests will be able to enjoy premier gaming, dining, and entertainment at this exceptionally accessible new location.”
Construction is nearing completion on the new $185 million Hollywood Casino Joliet in the Rock Run Collection, a sprawling 310-acre mixed-use development adjacent to the Interstate 80 and Interstate 55 interchange. The facility will feature expanded gaming, with 1,000 slots, 43 table games, a retail sportsbook, a 10,000-square-foot event center and restaurants.
The casino, which broke ground in December 2023, was initially projected to open at the end of this year.
Penn is also building a new land-based entertainment complex for Hollywood Casino Aurora, which is slated to open next year. The $360 million facility is going up near I-88 and Chicago Premium Outlets mall and will include 1,200 gaming positions, a 220-room hotel, a retail sportsbook, a spa, an outdoor entertainment area, a 12,000-square-foot event center and restaurants.
Both casinos will offer new Italian restaurants in partnership with Giada De Laurentiis, and food halls featuring the first suburban locations for Antique Taco and Pretty Cool Ice Cream, as well as Lucky Goat, a new burger restaurant by celebrity chef Stephanie Izard.
The restaurants are expected to open in time to feed the first gamblers at the new Hollywood Casino Joliet in August, pending approval by the Illinois Gaming Board.
“When we open this, 100% of our facility will be in operation, open and available to our customer base,” Ruben Warren, general manager of Hollywood Casino Joliet, told the Tribune. “We won’t open this project in pieces like other competitors have.”
Launched in the 1990s when the state legalized riverboat casinos, both Joliet and Aurora are still operating as permanently moored barges on the Des Plaines and Fox rivers, respectively.
Hollywood Casino Joliet will need to shut down for about two weeks to transition operations from the riverboat to the new land-based casino ahead of the targeted Aug. 11 opening, Warren said.
The state’s sweeping 2019 gambling expansion bill, which added everything from six new casinos to sports betting, allowed all casinos to be built on or moved to dry land. Rivers Des Plaines became the first to convert to a land-based casino, paying a $250,000 Gaming Board fee in 2020 to expand beyond an underground pool on which it was built.
The state’s newer casinos, including Bally’s Chicago, Wind Creek Chicago Southland and Hard Rock Rockford, are all land-based.
Rivers Casino Des Plaines was once again the state’s top casino in April with $43.9 million in adjusted gross receipts, followed by newcomer Wind Creek, which hit a new high with $17.1 million in revenue, according to Gaming Board data.
Wind Creek, owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, launched in its permanent 70,000-square-foot casino in south suburban East Hazel Crest in November. Last month, it opened a 255-room hotel.
In May 2022, Rhode Island-based Bally’s was selected to build the Chicago casino at the site of the former Tribune printing plant in River West, a $1.7 billion proposal that includes an exhibition hall, a 500-room hotel, a 3,000-seat theater, 10 restaurants and 4,000 gaming positions. The casino is expected to open in September 2026.
Work was temporarily halted May 1 after the Gaming Board discovered the construction project was using an unauthorized subcontracted waste hauler previously alleged to have had ties to organized crime. The agency gave Bally’s Chicago the green light to resume construction May 15 with a new vendor vetting and disclosure process in place.
Bally’s, which has been operating a temporary casino at Medinah Temple since September 2023, was ranked fifth among the state’s 16 full casinos with $11 million in adjusted gross receipts last month, according to data from the Gaming Board.
Hollywood Casino Aurora ranked eighth in revenue during April at $8.3 million and Hollywood Casino Joliet was 10th at $7.1 million, according to Gaming Board data.
Moving from its more secluded riverboat to a land-based casino in a high-traffic location, Warren expects Hollywood Casino Joliet to get a lot busier.
“Our opportunity to acquire new customers just explodes … sitting in a very visible location with that traffic count,” Warren said.
